[dmusicd]

Charging Issues:

My 550s were taking in excess of 5hrs of charging via PC right out of the box when I first bought them, 2 years ago. I thought it was just the LED indicators playing up.

Fast forward to now, the set wouldnt charge. Well, it was finicky tbh. The charging indicators working/ not working. Turning them on/ off would get the LEDs to light up again. The battery percentage at 60 even after 6 hours with my power bank.

What worked:

I reset them a few times, plugged them into my PC and watched a few shows, (via USB Audio) listened to some music and the charging seems to have stabilised.

 

[JML]

I just tried the new EPOS Adapt 660, which is built upon the 550, intending to use them for Zoom meetings. They're marketed for that use and office work with video and audio conferencing. But I had to return them. Sound was actually pretty good (a bit muddy), and the microphone setup truly excellent, but the relatively small size of the earpieces and pads made my ears sweat immediately. That's not been something I experienced before to that degree with closed headphones like the Oppo PM-3 and KEF/Porsche Space One. Very disappointing.

 

[hifi80sman]

I just tried the new EPOS Adapt 660, which is built upon the 550, intending to use them for Zoom meetings. They're marketed for that use and office work with video and audio conferencing. But I had to return them. Sound was actually pretty good (a bit muddy), and the microphone setup truly excellent, but the relatively small size of the earpieces and pads made my ears sweat immediately. That's not been something I experienced before to that degree with closed headphones like the Oppo PM-3 and KEF/Porsche Space One. Very disappointing.

If you're looking for business calls, try the Bose NC 700. I've been very satisfied with them.

 

[JML]

I just got the Shure AONIC 50.

 

[Crusse]

Just posting to report an update on my 3-year-old pair of first-generation PXC 550:

• Recharging has been a struggle for a couple of years now (similar to the charging problems mentioned by others in earlier pages of this thread). When I plug in the cable, one of the following happens, seemingly randomly:
  • The first white light starts blinking. Even after 8 hours, only the first light is blinking, and the battery hasn't recharged at all.
  • The first white light or even two lights start blinking immediately, but after a few seconds no lights are blinking anymore. It's as if the headphones think they're fully recharged after a few seconds. Plugging in the cable again (and waiting to see if the lights are still blinking after a few seconds) is what I have to do every now and then.
  • In the span of a few minutes, the headphones go from 1 light blinking to 3, 4 or 5 lights blinking. Sometimes after 8 hours the battery seem to have recharged some, but sometimes not at all.
  • The battery has recharged fully in the span of a night's sleep. When this happens, either the lights have stopped blinking altogether, or all 5 lights are blinking.
• The left earpiece's noise cancelling sometimes switches off if I do anything that is a knock (maybe there's some contact issue in the headphones):
  • Bump the headphones accidentally (e.g. with my knuckles)
  • Take the headphones off (i.e. grab the earpieces with my hands and separate them sideways to lift them away from my ears)
  • While walking, step too heavily
  • While eating a carrot, snap off a piece of carrot with my teeth
• The earpads wore out, so I bought and installed new HZP 49 earpads

I haven't found a good way to get the recharging to work reliably yet. Any one of the following seems to help sometimes, but it could just as well be that the recharging behavior is completely random, and that none of these affect it:

• Hold the effect button for 4 seconds to reset the headphones
• Turn off bluetooth (from the small switch in the right earpiece), switch the headphones on and connect the headphones to a USB cable. The headphones seem to like to recharge better when switched on, than when switched off.
• Rattle the headphones (in case the recharging problems have anything to do with the contact problem I mentioned above)
• Remove and plug in the cable again (maybe in a slightly different angle or with a slightly different touch), hoping that this was the right incantation for the headphones to accept the charge

Otherwise the headphones are still good. If the knocking/contact issue didn't exist, and if recharging would work properly all the time (since the battery still seems to have good capacity), these headphones would still be very good.

 

[Kaelis]

Hi everyone,

Also been using them for 3 years now !

I like the sound quality very much, totally adequate for a BT headset. I tried the AirPods Max at work this week by curiosity to see if I could get tempted to replace the PCX550 with them, especially since I have employee discount and Max is at 480€ new for me.

They didn't convince me enough to think about replacing my PCX550's to be honest. But I'll still try to get one pair at home to really try them out properly and refund them if I'm still not convinced.

And everything works as good as day one, no issue to report really.

Two questions though :

1 - What does the "DLC" option in the Sennheiser app do ?

2 - I see PCX550 II handles the AAC codec. Would it make enough of a difference to warrant replacing my PCX550 for the new version ? I listen to AAC only since I'm using the Apple Music synced library feature allowing me to listen to any of my 22.000 iTunes songs on the go.

 

[433521]

oops. love my Sennheisers. Great for plane trips.

 

[433521]

Hi everyone,

Also been using them for 3 years now !

I like the sound quality very much, totally adequate for a BT headset.

1 - What does the "DLC" option in the Sennheiser app do ?

2 - I see PCX550 II handles the AAC codec. Would it make enough of a difference to warrant replacing my PCX550 for the new version ? I listen to AAC only since the Apple Music synced library feature allowing me to listen to any of my 22.000 iTunes songs on the go.

1. Don't Let Comedians get the jump on you OR Dynamic Level Control which raises the loudness of older recordings. This is useful because the newer recordings sound loud all the time in order to grab the listener's attention. Older recordings can put the average level at -10 or less to allow peaks ... this is much softer and won't sound good to the listener who doesn't continually mess with their pot.

2. It's probably not the biggest upgrade, and the Sony is on it's fourth iteration. The problem with the Senn's is that the resale value sucks, and the Sony is often as cheap on the street price scene.
Oh, these don't have LDAC I forgot. Senn's site says $200. I'd grab 'em if you don't have apt x on your player.

Grado GT 220 's are wireless + aac compatible in-ear pods or w/e they are called, and just came out, if you want to support a small Brooklyn company that usually makes it's stuff in house (not these obviously).

 

[AudioMan2013]

I bought this set to give as a gift since it was ridiculously priced. I went ahead and decided to open the box just to try them out so I could compare the sound to the MS660ms. The 660 sounded a bit more open and a tad more refined than the 550 ii. Im not sure if that is because I have a couple of 100 hours on them vs the 550. The sound on the 550 sounded a bit more tight. Maybe they will open up after some use? They sound good, I mean you really cant go wrong with a Sennheiser. Im sure someone will really appreciate this gift. Im looking forward to getting the wireless Momentum 3 and hearing its sound.

 

[WickedInsignia]

PXC550 (Original) 3-year user here. Absolutely the best deal in noise-cancelling HPs for anyone whose taste extends beyond bloated bass, and hits an extremely sweet spot between weight/comfort/SQ/battery/NC that beats out every can I've tried in this segment. Still a great deal today, especially with the ii's recent price drop.

There's one thing I did to make the most out of these, and I would like to share that here for those coming to version ii:
You'll notice that with no FX active, the PXC sounds fine with noise cancelling on. Beautifully balanced.
With noise cancelling off, the PXC becomes lean, overly thin and shouty. All bass disappears and the balance is wrecked.
Since I like to use these at work as standard wireless cans with the NC off, here was my solution:

• In the Sennheiser app, go to the FX profiles and configure the PXC to use Director (you could cycle to this with buttons on the original, but must assign it in the app in version ii. To my knowledge, the PXC will remember this setting outside of the app).
• Turn on DLC. Leave everything else off.
• Voila. Bass is restored, shouty mids are tamed, treble is sparkly and all is well again. Don't worry, your mids are still sitting in the auditorium....they're just not standing and screaming now. Just remember to turn it off when you switch on noise cancelling!

To explain:
DLC bumps up the bass/certain treble frequencies at lower listening levels, since these lose impact as you lower the volume. This setting is intelligent and will adapt as you turn the volume up so it isn't excessive (Don't know how true this is, but it seems right to my ears).
The PXCs are extremely well-tuned on default profile with NC on but they dropped the ball when it came to NC off. The DLC tames the frequency response to sound nearly identical to the NC tuning. It by no means turns it into a V-shaped sound either, since the PXC is a very mid-centric can already.
I've found however that it degrades the sound quality in NC....it sounds doubled, and bass becomes a bit too loose and muddy. NC sounds great with no effects on.


Just a general tip for those who enjoy a "neutral" sound with some consumer flavoring in the right places

 

[Sennheiser]

@WickedInsignia Apologies for only now seeing that tidbit, but that's an excellent bit of advice and evidence of the magical things about the audio community. Thank you for sharing, hope it helps others as well!